A MAN told police he would “stab up” people who had been causing problems outside his home.

Colin Beetham, 54, of Queens Road, Crossflatts, appeared before Bradford Crown Court, via video link, to be sentenced for possession of a bladed article in a public place.

The court heard he attended the helpdesk of Trafalgar House Police Station in Bradford city centre on the evening of June 22 this year to report ongoing problems with people outside his address.

Beetham asked officers if they could talk outside the station and told them people were causing problems outside his home and police had not done anything about it.

But he became agitated when asked if he could make a statement the following week and said: “I’ll go and sort it out myself with this knife I’ve got in my pocket.”

Police detained him and found he had been carrying a pizza knife with a six-inch blade.

Beetham then said he was going to “stab them all up” and said that he didn’t care if he went to prison – he was going to “f*** them all up”.

He said he had been around three or four times to Trafalgar House and had been frustrated and said things he didn’t mean.

Jayne Beckett, for Beetham, said he was frustrated at the situation and it had got the better of him, but he would not have done anything with the knife.

She said his record was “appalling”, but that it was set against the backdrop of his long-term heroin addiction, though he was now taking methadone.

He was also struggling as he had suffered a serious accident at the beginning of last year, when he fell off a roof.

Beetham was initially left wheelchair bound, but now needs walking sticks and is due to have a hip replacement.

Ms Beckett said there can be a new start for him, but he needs to sort out his temper and frustrations.

In sentencing, Judge Jonathan Rose told Beetham he accepted he was having problems and had gone to report it to police but “you were, at the time, in possession of a serious weapon, a knife, which is capable of causing serious injury or death”.

He said: “You don’t need to be told the problems there are with knife crime in this country.

“It may well have been you were frustrated that the police did not respond instantly, but that frustration can not be ever allowed to translate into the potential for violent action.”

He said there could be no alternative to an immediate prison sentence.

Beetham was sentenced to a total of 20 months.